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Purcell's speech today on CC


hayesmw

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I didn't see the latest report from UT as a 100% thumbs up. It makes a valid point that I have said many times: Nashville-Davidson county is competing with a private entity, Gaylord Hotels. That means Nashville tax payers will be paying to build a new convention center that will compete with Gaylord. In the worst case scenario, Gaylord could determine that their property here is no longer valuable and shut it down or sell it off, thus killing the largest generator of hotel/motel tax in the county. How can that be good? I know that is the worse case scenario, but are we really in a position where we can hope that everything works out for all parties involved?

Let's look at this another way. I decide to open a bakery. Nashville-Davidon county then comes and says 'I want a bigger bakery, and mine will be subsidized by every single tax payer in davidson county.' How is that fair to me, the private company who can't throw people in jail for not giving me money? I'm not saying NAshville can't or shouldn't proceed with a new facility; I just hate when the government competes with private industry.

I've said all along the solution is to work with Opryland to increase their convention space, and connect it with downtown via a high speed rail. The cost would be MUCH lower that half a billion dollars, and Davidson county taxpayers would have no liability at all.

First, I don't think your premise that Opryland was a purely private venture is correct. I'm almost certain that Nashville taxpayers subsidized the development of the hotel with tax breaks and may still be. Someone else on the board my know more details on that.

Second, I think Opryland has done very little in recent years to boost business for anyone other than Gaylord and the airport. True, they regularly shuttle interested guests downtown but always caution them not to stray far from the Wildhorse (Gaylord owned) or risk missing the return shuttle and paying $30 to cab back to base. I get a kick out of meeting people who think they've been to Nashville only to find that they've attended a Gaylord convention and spent 2 hours line dancing at the Wildhorse.

I don't fault Gaylord for adopting this casino/theme parkish model. It seems to work very well for them. However, I don't think we need to shed tears for them over a new CC or worry that they're going to wake up one day and decide to abandon a several hundred million dollar property; they'll find a way to stay competitive.

Oh, and for the record I'm not a strong proponent one wy or the other of the new CC and I'm also not one of those who view the closing of the theme park as some huge loss to Nashville or a bad business decision on the part of Gaylord. It was a smart call by Gaylord and in some ways I think it's helped the city grow beyond its prior reputation as being home to Heehaw, which btw I enjoyed as a kid.

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Ditto that. Especially the part with Gaylord staying competitive. After all, isn't there a well travelled rumor that they are going to build another park in their neighborhood? Ironically, the CC may speed up their plans to do so. You just don't know what's going to happen, but (IMO) the new CC would be a slam-dunk for the city. Just think of all the cities that have put a CC in their DT only to hope that the other attractions follow. In Nashville, you already have the attractions. It's no hyperbole that a new CC would vault Nashville to the top tier of convention destinations.

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Hmmm... I'm glad to find the UT study is positive, and says that it could energize downtown, but deep down I'm kinda disappointed that they recomended the SoBro site as their #1 choice. If you look at a map, that really leaves very little land left on Demonbren which is supposed to be our vibrant, entertainment (from what I've understood). I think either of the other two locations they recomended would be excellent choices, and I would still love an East River Bank convention center...but I really think this project needs to keep moving, because it's nessicary for Nashville. By the way, when do we get rid of Purcell?

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Ah, just imagine if we had a nice pro-business Republican to work his or her magic on our fair city. After 118 years of one party Democrat Mayors, it'd be a nice change of pace. -_-

I'm as big of a right winger than anyone else, but I don't think common sense or corruption knows party lines in this state. I could be wrong, but with a republican governer, we were knocking on state income tax's door.

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I'm as big of a right winger than anyone else, but I don't think common sense or corruption knows party lines in this state. I could be wrong, but with a republican governer, we were knocking on state income tax's door.

I like to differentiate between Conservative Republicans (such as the current distinguished Governor of Mississippi) and slimy little RINO weasels like he-who-shall-not-be-named. For the record, when his stench became apparent by the end of his first term, this Republican voted unapologetically for Democrat John Jay "Income Tax Over My Dead Body" Hooker for Governor in '98.

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You need to share whatever you're smokin' over there...

Hey, y'know, two party systems are nice. San Francisco had a GOP Mayor more recently than we have. Even the Soviet Union's one party dog and pony show didn't last as long... Elections in this county are representative of everything that is dysfunctional about republican democracy, just take a look at the most recent one, it was like voting in a Cuban farce.

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Cities that continue electing the same party into power every time are at a much, much higher risk of political corruption becoming completely ingrained into the entire government system. It's absolutely amazing to me that it's been 118 years since a republican has been mayor in Nashville. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, there's not one person alive on this entire planet that was living when the last republican mayor served here. Nashville is extremely lucky that political corruption is not rampant throughout.

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